RedHawks tear up Cats

After winning two out of three games against Notre Dame on March 29 and March 30, the University of Cincinnati baseball team (12-11, 4-2 Big East) couldn't hang with Miami University (6-17, 1-5 Mid-American Conference) and lost 11-8 on Tuesday night.

Freshman Nick Johnson started the game for the Bearcats. Johnson came into the game with a 2-0 record and a 2.41 ERA. Johnson went five 1/3 innings and gave up five hits and three earned runs.

In the top of the first inning, the RedHawks took an early 1-0 lead. With a runner on second, Jon Edgington laid down a sacrifice bunt moving the runner to third, setting up Chris Nadeau, who hit a RBI single down the third baseline. With one out, short stop Jordan Petraitis ended the inning grounding into a double play.

The Bearcats responded quickly and tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the first. With the bases loaded senior Tony Campana was caught stealing home and with one out there were runners on second and third. Junior Mike Spina drove in a run on a fielder's choice and Cincinnati tied the game at one a piece. Satterwhite struck out to end the inning.

"I thought we lost it in the first inning," said UC head coach Brian Cleary. "We got bases loaded, nobody out and gave them two outs on the bases. Their starter couldn't get an out and we bailed him out. We really made it easy on him, I thought, with two base-running mistakes in the first inning."

Miami took a 2-1 lead in the top of the third after Josh Hula and Evan Armitage hit back-to-back singles to lead off the inning. Johnson walked the third batter of the inning, loading the bases. With no outs, Edgington hit a deep sacrifice fly to left field and scored Hula giving Miami the lead. Johnson retired the next two hitters to end the inning.

In the bottom of the sixth inning the Bearcats trailed 3-1 until junior Cameron Satterwhite hit a deep line drive off the left field wall for a double. Satterwhite stole third setting up and Riddell, who grounded out to first, but was able to drive in Satterwhite, pulling Cincinnati within one run. That would be as close as Cincinnati would come to the lead.

After a scoreless seventh inning, Cincinnati senior Billy Welsh replaced freshman Brian Sand in the top of the eighth inning. With the Bearcats trailing 3-2, freshman Adam Eaton hit an RBI single giving the RedHawks a 4-2 lead.

Welsh was replaced by sophomore Brian Garman. With the bases loaded Garman gave up an infield single to junior Chris Nadeau, scoring another run.

Miami further extended their lead when junior Jordan Petraitis drove in three runs on a double to left center field, giving Miami a 9-2 lead. The Bearcats gave up seven runs on five hits in the eighth inning.

"Not very often can you give up a seven run inning and survive," Cleary said. "Tonight was a pretty good example of that."

Cincinnati responded by scoring four runs in the bottom of the eight inning, but it wasn't enough.

Next up, the Bearcats go on the road and face the University of Connecticut for a three-game series starting April 4 at 3 p.m.